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Ending smoking has been a goal for healthcare professionals for decades. The number one preventable health issue across the country is smoking, by a long shot. The number of health issues that result from smoking are myriad, a range of respiratory and circulatory issues can result from smoking. These issues are shown to improve rapidly upon smoking cessation and for those that have a hard time quitting, nicotine replacement options, tobacco free, can be a solution. 

In an interesting bit of corporate research, Philip Morris International’s U.S. businesses (PMI U.S.) has commissioned a white paper that examines the findings from a survey of healthcare professionals across the country. The findings show that despite the improved health outcomes that can result from smoke-free alternatives, physicians and other healthcare providers may still be lagging behind the science in understanding those benefits. 

“The FDA understands the vital role smoke-free alternatives can play in helping adults who smoke leave cigarettes behind, which has the potential to improve both individual and public health,” said Dr. Matthew Holman, Chief Scientific & Regulatory Strategy Officer, PMI U.S. “The next step is for the agency to share this information with the healthcare professionals on the front line. These are the people smokers are most likely to turn to for help in ending their cigarette use.” 

The study points out that even the FDA has acknowledged that nicotine itself does not cause most of the health effects associated with tobacco use – the smoke and the burning tobacco is what causes these fatal lung diseases or cancer. At the moment, half of the healthcare practitioners mistakenly believe nicotine itself is a carcinogen. 

“My dad, who started smoking in World War Two when the military passed out cigarettes to GIs, smoked Lucky Strikes until almost the day he died at the age of 68 of emphysema and COPD,” said physician Tom Price, former Secretary of Heath and Human Services and former Roswell-based congressman. “His parents, both of whom were born in the nineteenth century, lived to be 98 and 99, respectively. So I don’t know how long my dad would have lived if he hadn’t smoked, but I I think it would have been longer than 68 years old.” 

It’s not that healthcare providers aren’t open to the idea. More than 90 percent of those surveyed said that if the FDA find a specific smoke-free product presents less risk of chronic disease or cancer, they have a duty to convey this information to patients. But this product is already out there, though the providers are not aware of the benefits. 

“There are nearly thirty million smokers in the country. About a half million deaths every single year directly are related to smoking. There are another sixteen million folks who have some type of disease related to smoking, and we spend about a quarter of a trillion dollars each year on it,” said Price. “So from my perspective, and the work that’s been done, clearly, we want people to quit. So if you don’t smoke, you ought not to start. If you do smoke, you ought to quit. If you can’t quit, which is a significant portion of those who currently smoke, then you ought to change how you consume nicotine.” 

“We ought to embrace harm reduction. And sadly, we don’t,” added Price. “There seems to be this stigma about trying to do anything other than getting people to quit smoking. I think that’s just foolish and wrong and harms people’s health.”